疑心暗鬼 - Gi Shin An Ki
by Shion-Ai Misaki
Summary: Suspicion is an essential part of the human nature, and as such it is chained to each and every heart. Suspicion gives raise to fear, and fear is said to be humanity's most ancient emotion; thereby being innate in every person. - A horror story about suspicion and its consequences, starring Tobio Kageyama. - Happy Halloween.


**疑心暗鬼**

 **"Gishinanki - Suspicion will raise bogies."**

Suspicion is an essential part of the human nature, and as such it is chained to each and every heart. Suspicion gives raise to fear, and fear is said to be humanity's most ancient emotion; thereby being innate in every person.

It happened that once a certain town existed, and rumours had it that said town was cursed. They contained almost mythical stories about a being that seemed to come straight out of a dream; or should one say _nightmare_? It is said that should a person be suspicious of someone, but should that suspicion be falsely directed to an innocent one, it will invoke the "Gishinanki". Some people refer to it as a demon, some call it a monster. There are discussions about whether it is a vampire, or an undead, or even an extra-terrestrial being; but one thing is for sure, they all know that the Gishinanki brings about death as it appears whenever a person "jumps at shadows", like the well-known idiom says. And once the Gishinanki appears it is difficult to get rid of it; its thirst for blood isn't quickly satisfied.

But as time passed by, the legend of the cursed town started to fall into oblivion as humanity tends to ignore troublesome things and thus forget about them after a period of time. Nonetheless the curse was slowly being called into the townspeople's minds as a mysterious series of deaths started to occur.

"In the other news… This morning another corpse was found dead in an apartment. The police confirmed that it is most probably linked to the previous cases, marking it as the fifth found corpse in the last two weeks. The authorities recommend to not stay out of the houses when it turns dark and to be always accompanied by someone. The victim's identity has already been proven, it was a boy called Ka-"

"I can't hear this anymore, the news are full of this stuff lately. Can't I live my normal life?" the boy said as he turned off the TV, he was tired of hearing the same things over and over. He wasn't scared, he thought to himself, trying to keep a calm mind.

"Shouyou, get ready to go to school." the boy's mother said. The boy was called Shouyou Hinata, a normal 15 years old High School student, living a plain normal life as he always tended to say. He didn't know his so-called normal life would come to an end soon.

It was a day like any other and Shouyou attended class like he always did. He wasn't the best student and he didn't quite like going to school either, but there was one thing he liked above everything else; volleyball. He was part of the volleyball club of his High School and he considered a day as a good day as long as he got to play some volleyball after classes ended.

As soon as his last lesson for the day ended, he rushed to the gym, waiting to see his teammates already playing, but when he arrived there the gym was empty. Confused by that fact, he suddenly noticed one of his upperclassmen walking by.

"Asahi-san! Aren't we doing practise today?" Shouyou asked him.

"O-oh, H-Hinata… uhm… h-haven't you heard that practise was cancelled for the week?" his upperclassman told Shouyou.

"Whaaaat? Why?!" Shouyou asked.

"S-so you haven't heard, huh?"

"Heard what?" Shouyou didn't know what he was talking about. And then, out of nowhere, Shouyou's upperclassman's hands were on Shouyou's shoulders.

"Narita has died, his corpse has been found this morning." he said and Shouyou's mind went blank. His eyes widened in disbelief and he lowered his head, not knowing how to react after hearing that one of his teammates was dead.

The sun had already set when two students left the school building, heading home.

"Ts-Tsukki, we shouldn't have stayed so late, i-it's already dark, what if something happens?" the boy walking on the left said.

"Don't be ridiculous, Yamaguchi. Don't tell me you're scared of the news. Those are all coincidences." the other one of them said. Tadashi Yamaguchi and Kei Tsukishima were staying at the school because they were working on a project. Both of them were part of the volleyball club as well, but only Tadashi seemed to be worried.

"B-but…" Tadashi was visibly scared, but Kei didn't seem to be worried at all.

"Yamaguchi, if you continue you'll end up imagining things. So stop." Kei said.

Suddenly the two of them heard a rustling noise, Kei stopped and turned around. He moved his eyes around, trying to figure out where the sound came from.

"Tsukki, wh-what was that sound?" the scared Tadashi asked his friend.

"How should I know?" Kei replied while looking at the tree they were standing next to, focusing the treetop.

"A-anyway, let's go home already, I-I wanna go home and…" Tadashi was already walking again and didn't notice how his friend hasn't moved since they stopped. And as he kept on walking, Kei was still looking at the tree, approaching it slowly, step by step. He thought to have seen something in the tree, but he didn't know if he was just imagining things.

"I don't wanna lose any more time, Tsu… Tsukki?" Tadashi noticed that his friend wasn't walking beside him. He instantly turned around to see what Kei was doing, but when he did, there was no one there.

"Ts-Tsukki?" he called out whispering; he started trembling. He couldn't see Kei anywhere he was supposed to be, so he slowly started walking back to the tree, repeatedly calling his friend's name.

"Tsu-Tsukki?!" but there was no answer to his calls. A cold wind started blowing, it made him shiver even more. He only wanted to return home, but he didn't want to go without his friend. He kept on approaching the tree the two of them had passed by only a few moments ago until he was standing underneath the tree. He stopped walking and started calling out Kei's name again.

"Tsukki! Wh-where are you?" he turned around his head, trying to find Kei, but he didn't succeed.

"Ts-Ts-Tsukkiii, th-this isn't funny, c-come on!" Tadashi was in fear, he didn't know what was happening. But then he felt something on his forehead.

"H-huh? Is it going to rain?" he asked himself as he slowly moved his face skywards, but more drops fell on his face and at the instant he was looking up at the tree he saw a red light glowing from the dark tree. He jumped back in fear, which caused him to fall down on the ground. Drops kept falling down from the tree and when he looked at the floor, it was dappled red. After seeing that Tadashi intuitively moved his hand to his face, wished away the drops and when he looked at his hands his eyes widened. They were red, blood red.

Suddenly out of nowhere a pair of glasses fell down from the tree and the glass broke as soon as it hit the ground. Tadashi recognized them instantly, they were the glasses of Kei.

"Ts-Ts-Tsu… kki…?" he said with a trembling voice while looking upwards again, tears started forming in his eyes. But everything he saw was a red light that was seemingly directed towards him, as if the light was looking down on him. Tadashi wanted to run away, but his legs wouldn't move. He was paralyzed with fear.

"Ts… u… Tsu…" he tried to call his friend again, but the tears and his sobbing were stronger. And before he realized it, something fell down the tree and landed on the ground with a muffled sound.

"You were looking for him, right?" a voice coming from the tree asked. After hearing those words Tadashi started screaming and crying out loud, finally noticing that the corpse of his friend was the thing that had fallen from the tree.

"Well, you found him." the voice continued. After that, a figure clad in black jumped down the tree and was standing next to the corpse. Tadashi was looking at a figure with to red glowing eyes.

"W-wh… wh… w-whyy…" he manages to say something even though he had never felt that much fear in his life before. He looked into the red eyes of the figure and his body shivered.

"Why? Why don't you ask him? Haha." the figure replied.

"Y-y… you… y…" Tadashi tried to form words, but he wasn't able to.

"I can help you, if you wanna ask him. Now that you've seen me I can't let you live anyways." the figure said as it slowly approached Tadashi. Tadashi started to panic and trying to run away. He managed to crawl away from underneath the tree and was heading towards a street lamp to use it as a help for standing up, but when he looked back he stopped. He was looking at the figure and recognised it. His eyes widened once again in shock and he managed to slowly open his mouth.

"K-Kage-" but before he could pronounce it his throat was slashed open in an instant and blood was gushing out of it, covering the figure's clothes.

"Nighty night, Yamaguchi." the figure whispered. After that he stood up and looked around him where the two bodies of the ones he had just killed were lying.

"What a mess. And my clothes are dirty. Better go home for now and get changed." it said as it walked away and disappeared into the night.

The next morning came and Shouyou was getting ready to go to school, he was still thinking about what he found out the day before; he still couldn't believe that one of his teammates had died.

On his way to school he met one of his classmates that was also a good friend of his, Tobio Kageyama.

"Ossu, Hinata! Why are you so down?" Tobio asked his friend.

"Oh, hi Kageyama. You… didn't hear what happened to Narita?" Shouyou said monotonously.

"O-oh, y-yes. I… I heard…" Tobio looked down. It wasn't as if he had forgotten about it, he just didn't want to talk about it with Shouyou. He didn't like to see Shouyou sad. Neither of them said anything else on their way to school.

The school day flew by slower than normally, Shouyou thought to himself. He couldn't concentrate on anything. As soon as the bell rang and the last lesson ended, Tobio instantly stood up and went to Shouyou's desk.

"H-Hinata, wanna walk home togeth-"

"Hinataaaaa!" a female voice called out to Shouyou through the room, Hitoka Yachi was standing at the door.

"Y-Yachi-san?" Shouyou looked into her direction and stood up, ignoring Tobio. It was commonly known that Shouyou was in love with Hitoka. He started walking towards her and after she explained something to him they both started walking away. Tobio observed the entire scene with an infuriated expression on his face.

"Tch." he said as he walked back to his desk.

Meanwhile Hitoka and Shouyou were walking down the floor until she stopped in front of a door, waited for a bit and then entered pulling Shouyou along with her. "Karasuno Doll Club" was written on the door and when Shouyou entered he was surrounded by a vast amount of dolls; he felt as if they were all looking at him, it was an eerie feeling.

"So, what did you want to tell me, Yachi-san?" Shouyou asked.

"I was concerned about the series of deaths that were occurring in our town, so I started to do some research. Did you ever hear of the Gishinanki?" Hitoka started explaining.

"The Gishi-what?" he didn't know what she was talking about.

"Gishinanki. I read in a book that our town was once a cursed town and that there was a demon-like being that starts appearing whenever someone is falsely accused of something. And then the Gishinanki punishes the accuser by killing that person, and once it does it keeps on killing more and mooooore, and then-"

"Yachi-san! Calm down, are you listening to what you're saying right now?"

"O-of course, Hinata! Do you think I'm making this up? What if that Gishinanki has appeared again?"

"Are you serious? This isn't some kind of horror story, you know?" Shouyou was about to leave the room, but Hitoka continued talking.

"I also read that the only way of getting rid of the Gishinanki is by giving it what it desires." she was walking from one end of the room to the other.

"Oh and what's that?"

"I don't know, I didn't find any clues on that."

"I see." Shouyou didn't want to doubt her or question her sanity because of what he was hearing, he liked her too much. He wanted to trust her, but he had no interest in playing along with her detective phantasies of a demonic monster.

"Tsukishima and Yamaguchi didn't come to class today, what if they were killed as well?"

"That's not funny, I'm going now, Yachi-san." Shouyou got angry, he didn't want to hear jokes about someone's possible death.

"Ahh, no. I didn't… mean it like that…" she said regretfully, but Shouyou had already left the room. Hitoka turned around and looked at one of the dolls.

"Why doesn't he believe me-" she wanted to say but then the light was switched off suddenly and the room turned pitch black; only some of the dolls' eyes seemed to be reflecting some kind of light, a red light. Hitoka turned around in fear, she couldn't see anything, she only heard how the door was being locked.

"Do you like dolls… Yachi-san?" a voice coming from where the door was asked.

"I… I don't dislike them. Who… who is it?" she asked with a trembling voice.

"I see. Do you think dolls have emotions?" the voice continued asking rather peculiar questions. Hitoka didn't understand what was happening, but her instincts told her that she should answer those questions.

"I… I don't know, how about you?" she asked bravely.

"Me? Hmm… Let's see. I think it depends on what kind of eyes the dolls have."

"What kind of… eyes?"

"Yes. Think about it. If the eyes look alive, then the doll does too, don't you think?"

"M-maybe. Who are you?"

"Do you wanna see for yourself?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you wanna see for yourself how a doll perceives the world?"

"H-how?"

"Wanna become one, Ya-chi-chan?" and as soon as those last words were said the light was turned on again and Hitoka's eyes widened in shock.

"K-K-Ka-Kageyama…" was the first thing that left her mouth after seeing who was standing in front of her. It was Tobio, holding a large saw in his left hand. His eyes were twinkling red and he was slightly tilting his head and grinning devilishly.

"Well, almost I'd say. You already found out about me, didn't you?" Tobio whispered.

"Gi… Gishinanki?" Hitoka didn't want to say it.

"Excellent, you really are a model student, aren't you? Sadly, your model student life will end soon. Too bad." he said while laughing.

"Y-you're not Kageyama." she acted quite courageously, considering the situation she was in.

"You're right again. Or should I say you're _almost_ right?"

"Almost?"

"Yes, indeed, I am not Kageyama… anymore." he said with a grin.

"What?"

"You know, I accepted the Gishinanki's spirit, I _am_ the Gishinanki now. But I'm still Tobio Kageyama as well, I just need to play my roles according to the script of fate that was given to me. I need to finish the play with a proper curtain call, don't I?"

"Someone will get rid of you."

"Ahaha, well… let's see about that. Shall we get started then, my dear Yachi-chan?" and as soon as he finished that sentence the lights were switched off again and he dashed into her direction. And in a split second she was cut in half, blood gushing out from every direction, covering the floor, the dolls and Tobio's clothes.

"Oh my, Yachi, get a hold of yourself, would you? You're dirtying everything, ahaha… haha…" he started laughing frantically while he kept on cutting her body apart.

"Ah, you'd make a beautiful bust, do you know that?"

"At least now you won't take away my Hinata, he's the only thing I truly desire." he whispered.

"So tell me now… Do dolls have emotions, Yachi-chan?" he asked the corpse while looking into her dead eyes which reflected the red light coming from the Gishinanki's eyes.

The news about Yachi's brutal death spread like a wildfire in no time, the school was closed down for an uncertain period of time and the students were to remain at their houses for a while. Shouyou was in a state of shock for several weeks, he closed himself into his room and wouldn't let anyone in. Tobio tried to contact him some times, but he wouldn't even respond to the phone calls; Shouyou had isolated himself from the rest of the world. He made some research and found out more about the Gishinanki, he started believing in what Hitoka had said, he was sure that there had to be a Gishinanki.

When school resumed a month after the incident with Hitoka, the students started to suspect each other about who was the killer, they were sure that there was one among them, rumours about the Gishinanki spread quickly. And it was all Shouyou's doing, he wanted to take revenge for the friends he had lost, he was determined. Soon the rumours started focusing on Tobio Kageyama and one day it happened.

"Kageyama, can you come with us?" a group of students asked him suddenly after the end of classes.

"Tch." Tobio already knew what it was about, but he still followed them.

They all gathered behind one of the school building as soon as Tobio arrived there. Some of them were holding stakes and hammers.

"What, do you think I'm some kind of wimpy vampire?" Tobio asked.

"Shut up monster!" one of the students screamed as he dashed forward to attack, but Tobio dodged the attack, causing the attacker to stumble and fall down, landing right onto the stake he was holding and thereby ending up killing himself. Blood started gushing out and the other students all took one step back in panic.

"So, anyone else?" Tobio stared at the crowd with glowing red eyes and they all started running away in fear.

"Tch, pathetic." he looked down at the corpse lying in front of him. He knew he had to do something, he couldn't wait any longer and so he decided to go pay a visit to Shouyou's place.

It had already turned dark when he arrived at Shouyou's house. Even though it was night, the full moon in the sky was shining down on him and illuminating everything in front of him. Tobio knocked at the door.

"Trick or treat!" he said with a loud voice, but he didn't get any response.

"Okay then, I'll just let myself in." he said as he opened the door to Shouyou's house.

"'Scuuuuse me…" he was ready to being attacked, but the house was quiet, so he entered without any worries. When he closed the door behind of him, he noticed a faint smell in the air. It was a smell he knew all too well; the smell of death. He followed his nose, it led him into the kitchen were a woman was lying on the floor.

"Bah, how unhygienic. In the kitchen." when he examined the body he saw that the woman had gunshot wound in her head, she had been shot. But before he could further examine her, Tobio noticed a presence behind of him.

"What, you wanted to test the gun to see if it worked, Hinata?" Tobio said as he turned back to see Shouyou holding a gun in his hands, pointing at Tobio. Shouyou's eyes were blank, he looked like a walking corpse, but he was indeed alive.

"You… i-it's all your… your fault…." Shouyou said without moving his hands that were still pointing at Tobio.

"Is that so? I think it's the persons' fault for being suspicious of too many things. It is something like my duty to _free_ them from their pain, you know?"

"Don't talk shit like that, I trusted you! I thought you were my friend." Shouyou's eyes were teary.

"To err is human, Hinata. Nonetheless it's my duty to erase those who make mistakes. But that's not what I want to do, you know? There are tons of other things I'd rather do, but the townspeople decided to leave the difficult things to the Gishinanki; humans don't like dirtying their hands. But as long as there's someone else doing the dirty job and as long as they can ignore that fact, they can be happy. That's not what you'd call a beautiful human being, now is it, Hinata?" Tobio said without moving from where he was standing. Hinata's hands started trembling, but he still was determined to shoot.

"You're the cause for all of this. You're the one that killed my friends. I'm gonna end your life with my own hands."

"Tch, I hoped you'd be different."

"Ahhhhhh!" Shouyou screamed as he pulled the trigger once, but the bullet missed its target. He then kept on shooting five more times until no more bullets were left.

"Pathetic." Tobio started walking towards Shouyou who started running away. He tried to hide and ran into the bathroom.

"You don't need to hide I'll find you anyway and then I'll-" but then a knife came flying out of nowhere and Tobio only managed to barely evade it, resulting in the knife grazing one of his cheeks; blood was dripping down Tobio's face.

"Now you've angered me, you won't get away with this." he said as his eyes turned red again and he started looking for Shouyou again.

"Where are you?!" he yelled through the dark house, the lights weren't switched on. He paused for a moment, trying to picture the situation. But then he sensed someone on the other side of the room.

"Why hello there, I didn't expect _you_ to be here, Tanaka-senpai." Tobio said to the person who was holding a rather long sword in his right hand.

"I see you have a katana, you and Hinata did plan this together? I'm impressed that two airheads like you were capable of this, Tanaka-senpai." Ryunosuke Tanaka didn't answer him, he was just staring at him and turned on the lights again.

"Your streak ends here, Kageya… no, Gishinanki." Tobio's upperclassman said with a furious face.

"Now does it really? If I remember correctly one of your relatives is in possession of an art of sword fighting dojo, right? I think it's not exactly fair to be fighting me with a sword, don't you agree?" Tobio was taking small steps towards Ryunosuke; on Tobio's face a lunatic smile.

"Don't make me laugh, I don't care if it's unfair, a monster like you doesn't deserve a fair fight. And now BEGONE YOU-" Ryunosuke started dashing with all his might towards Tobio, swinging the sword to strike down the Gishinanki, but he missed. Or to be more precise, Tobio evaded the swing and in the same instant cut off both of his upperclassman's arms, which caused him to fall down on the floor, blood coming out from where the arms were supposed to be. Ryunosuke only managed to crawl around on the floor, accompanied by screaming and sobbing.

"Now now, calm down. If you don't die of blood loss I'll make sure to give you the eternal sleep later on, haha. But now I'll have to deal with Hinata first." Tobio started laughing as he went upstairs, thinking that that would be the most common place to be hiding.

"Hi-na-ta-kun, where are youuu?" Tobio said when he arrived on the second floor of the house. In the meantime rain had started pouring down outside and a storm started forming. Tobio was walking slowly, trying to not make any noise, but every second step was accompanied by the creaking of the wooden floor. It was like the scene right before the grand finale in a horror story, he thought to himself as he continued walking down the corridor, trying to find Shouyou.

And then, suddenly, a bullet came flying out of the dark and only a lighnting that seemed to have struck right next to the house illuminated the corridor through a window, showing the person who had just shot the bullet; it was Shouyou.

Tobio stopped moving.

"Haha, not bad…" were the last words he said before he fell down on his knees, only to fall down on his back right after; Shouyou's shot hadn't missed its target. Shouyou gasped for air, he was holding his breath as to not be found by Tobio.

He slowly calmed down and walked towards the body that was lying in front of him. The nightmare had ended, the Gishinanki was no more, all the victims had been avenged, he thought to himself. But just as he wanted to form a little smile, a stinging pain came from Shouyou's heart.

"Fooouuuund yaaaa, Hi-na-ta-kun. Ahaha." Tobio whispered into Shouyou's ear. He had pierced through Shouyou's heart when he was expecting it least. Shouyou coughed up blood through his mouth, resulting in landing on Tobio's cheek. Tobio was only pretending to be dead and waiting for his opportunity to attack Shouyou, and his plan was successful. He had attained what he had desired for so long; and it made him happy.

"Did you know that I had always liked you, Hinata? It's… it's the truth. R-really. Ahaha, you didn't expect this coming from me, did you? Haha, I know, it's almost incredible, like some kind of fairy tale. Haa, it's like a dream come true, d-do you… do you understand me, H-Hinata?" Tobio was sitting on a bed, covered in blood; but with a smile on his face. The lights were flickering but everything else was silent, nothing was making a noise, the storm stopped as abruptly as it had started, only the light sound of rain falling against a window could be heard.

"How very pitiful, you were the only one I liked. You were the only one… the only one… I didn't want to… to die, but you were too curious, my dear Hinata, hahaha. But… at least, now… you won't be able to run away from me anymore… Aha… haha…. Ahahaha…" he started laughing frantically while patting the head of the already dead Shouyou. Tobio was holding his dear friend's head in one hand while the rest of the body was lying on the floor; Shouyou had been beheaded, Tobio wanted to take good care of his friend.

After having attained what Tobio had truly desired, the series of mysterious deaths stopped and Tobio was never seen again; neither was the head of that one boy whose body had been found lying in his house a few days later.

But that wasn't the end of the story, new rumours started to raise. People talked about a demon, a monster that was being the cause of all those deaths. The legend of the Gishinanki started to raise again, bringing equally fear and suspicion to the people's hearts. And as long as suspicion resides in the human heart, there will always be a Gishinanki to _purify_ humanity from it. Was it a blessing or rather a curse; no one knew. The only thing certain was that the Gishinanki would be lurking in the shadows, waiting for the next one to jump at it and raise false suspicions.


End file.
